The amount spent using contactless payments in the UK has increased fivefold over the past year, but still accounts for a tiny fraction of overall payments, according to figures from Visa Europe.

Brits spent £45.2m and made 6.8 million purchases using Visa's contactless cards, which allow payments to be made by tapping the card onto a contactless reader, in June 2103 — five times the amount spent in the same month last year.

There are currently more than 28 million Visa contactless cards and 280,000 contactless terminals in the UK. Visa Europe predicts there will be more than 33 million contactless cards in the UK by the end the year.

There are still relatively few outlets that accept contactless payments, but large retailers such as M&S, McDonalds, Pret A Manger, Boots, Co-op, WHSmith, Starbucks and Costcutter do accept the payments. Major banks such as Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, Natwest and RBS issue contactless cards.

Across Europe €1.5 billion has been spent on 187 million purchases using Visa's contactless payment services.

Contactless mobile payments, which use the same underlying NFC technology (and are seen as the next step for contactless payments), remain at best nascent thanks to confusion over standards, business models and a lack of a compelling customer proposition — even though it's an area that mobile operators, handset manufacturers and credit card companies are eyeing with great interest.